Phormium species

There are two species of Phormium, both of which are
native to New Zealand.

Phormium tenax is known as New Zealand Flax or Coastal
Flax. The Maoris call it "harakeke" and use it to produce
a wide range of products. The name "Phormium" is derived
from the Greek name for "basket" - one of the items
produced by weaving the leaves. Phormium tenax is a common
plant of the coast and road side in New Zealand. It has long
strap-like leaves that can grow up to 3 metres tall and flowering
panicles that can be considerably taller. The orange-red flowers
are pollinated by birds and develop into erect seed pods.

P. tenax flowers

P. tenax seed pods

P. tenax seed pod

Phormium cookianum (also called P. colensoi
in some texts) is the Mountain Flax or the Maori "wharariki".
It is a smaller growing plant with thinner leaves that are arching
rather than erect. The flowers are greenish-yellow and the seed
pods are twisted and hang down from the flowering stalks.

The taxonomic position of Phormium has been discussed since
Hutchinson (Fain. Flow. Plants 2, 1934, 153; 2, 1959, 664) included
it in Agavaceae. According to Cave (Lilloa 31, 1962, 179),
"comparison of two of his tribes, Yucceae and Agaveae, with Phormium,
the only genus of the tribe Phormieae, shows how they differ in
delimitation of microspores, apertures in the wall of the pollen grains, the
presence of cover cell, the nucellar cap, the hypostase, and the mature
megagametophyte.’ Cave further points Out that Phormsum deviates
from the other members of the family in being the only genus with (1)
equitant distichous lvs and (2) 16 as the basic chromosome number and
sugfiests that the genus be excluded from the Agavaceae, proper placement
being dderred until more information is available.

The very characteristic branching of the infl, is referred to by Cave as
sympodial, but this is hardly an adequate description. Fls open in regular
sequence, the flowering laterals maturing acropetally. Within each lateral
the first fl. to open is the one furthest from the main axis, i.e. at the
end of the first order branch. Similarly the fl. terminating the second
order branch opens before that on the third order branch, etc. Each branch
arises in the axil of a bract.

The two spp. of Phormium (Hair and Beuzenberg, N.Z. J.Bot.
4, 1966, 266) do not display such a pronounced bimodality of chromosome
content as has been reported in the tribes Yucceae and Agaveae (Granick, Amer.
J. Bat. 31, 1944, 283—298), the range being c.3:1, as in
Cordyline.

The wide N.Z. literature on Phormium deals largely with the
extraction and use of the fibres for cordage, textiles, etc. B. D. Cross (T.N.Z.I.
47, 1915, 61—66) records a detailed study of many forms of the two spp.
Allan and Zotov (N.Z. 1. Sci. Tech. 18, 1937, 799—804)
report on an artificial cross between P. tenax and P. colensoi, and
Allan and Cranwell (Rec. Auck. Inst. Mus. 2 1942 269—279) discuss
inheritance of aberrant behaviour in which, in place of some or all of the
fls, an infl. produces lfy buds or ‘vivpars’ . Results of extensive
breeding programmes associated with commercial growing areas near Foxton,
including interspecific crosses, are mentioned incidentally in connection
with yellow-leaf disease (Boyce and Newhook, N.Z. I. Sci. Tech. 34A,
Suppl. 1, 1953, 10). A thorough modern survey of variation within and
between populations is needed.

Other names

P. colensoi

, a name used occ. from 1846 (e.g.
Raoul Ghoix 41, listed in Enumeratio Plantarum only), was not validly
published until 1864 by which time it was antedated by P. cookianum, which
Hooker quotes as a synonym.

P. forsterianum, also quoted by Hooker as a synonym of his P.
colensoi, remains a nomeo nudum, having been only mentioned in reference to
a specimen, but without description, by Colenso in Load. I. Bot. 3, 1844, 8.

P. hookeri was described from plants grown in a garden at Torquay
from seed from Mr Grace, a missionary at Wanganui. Hooker recognized it as
identical with a specimen found by Ronald Gunn of Tasmania in 1864, at
"the Waitangi River, about 30 or 40 miles from the mouth, where it grew
pendulous from almost perpendicular rocks, in great abundance".
Capsules were described as "pendulis, elongatis, tortis"; one of
Gunn’s collecting at K is 20.5 cm. long, one from Torquay 17.5 cm.

Early discussions of Phormium spp. were much confused by the
emphasis laid on colours of fls and lvs, and were influenced by the limited
range of forms grown in gardens in Europe.